Refurbished MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Laptops

Refurbished MacBooks

As with all refurbished Apple laptops, a refurbished MacBook Pro has more than likely come back to Apple for any number of issues completely unrelated to the functionality or operation of the unit.

Apple's standards and testing apply to all products, new or refurbished, so you know that if the unit comes from an authorized Apple dealer or even Apple itself, that it will look, function and generally operate as expected, and for much less money.

Some consumers report saving approximately $500 off the list price for an Apple refurbished MacBook while retaining battery life expectations, performance and overall quality.

Check with the seller to verify warranty information and who refurbished the unit.

First to switch to Intel and the change is obvious

And what a gamble that was. In introducing the MacBook, they discontinued the iBook and Powerbook lineup, effectively putting all their laptop eggs into one processor basket, and not just any processor, the heartbeat of the PC market.

The 15.4" MacBook Pro, designed as the replacement to the same size Powerbook, is the first laptop in the Apple arsenal to switch to the new Intel processors, and in doing so has yielded some concerns from users with regards to running applications not native to the Apple OS. Programs such as Photoshop have to be run through the Rosetta Translation Utility and with a such a middleman in the way, delayed progress is inevitable. The workaround is simply to install and run full versions of both Windows XP on the MacBook Pro (with thanks to Apple's Boot Camp utility), and there are no problems.

With three versions to choose from, 1.83GHz, 2.0GHz and 2.13GHz processors, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM and a Radeon graphics card, the MacBook Pro comes really well packed with enough power to take care of whatever native applications you want to run. MacBook Pro has also enjoyed a video performance boost over other Apple laptops without the Intel chips, so when coupled with a full Windows XP install, it makes the laptop a competitor as a gaming laptop.

A major failing of the MacBook Pro series is the rapid battery drain. Compared to other PCs in this performance market, the MacBook drained its batteries between 20% and 30% faster, depending on the model of PC laptop. The surprising battery life comparison was to an iBook G4 with the improved processors and a completely native Apple environment, and a battery lasting almost twice as long as the MacBook Pro.

Even with all the issues that this and other Apple laptops face when compared to PC, Apple still manages to differentiate themselves in customer service, charging money for the same level of customer care that the average PC customer enjoys, while charging more money for its laptop products.

At the end of the day though, it is still an Apple product, so inherently high build quality and a solid native OS delivering power and performance features, rendering an amazing deal if a refurbished MacBook is found, just know the nature of the beast and find a way live within its breadth.

MacBook Air

According to Apple, it was the thinnest notebook for sale in the world, and at 3/4" thick, it isn't a statement worth chellenging. Both Sony and Toshiba make laptops that come really close, but the MacBook Air has them all beat, and not just by its dimensions.

For the size, the MacBook Air is a suprisingly rugged laptop which is, generally speaking two of the biggest positives for this laptop, but the extraordinary size comes with limitations. For example, there is a surprisingly limited number of ports, and completely missing is FireWire, Ethernet or Mobile Broadband. The MacBook is faster and cheaper but larger, so which one you choose should be dictated by what is most important, ultraportability or connectivity? If you use more than one USB device, you're out of luck.

Some other nice features include the gesture trackpad which is a full 5" and works just like the other touch pads that Apple incorporates into most of its products. It also has a cool backlit keypad with light sensor which changes intensity based on the ambient light in the room. And if you need to access an optical drive, then you can use any other optical drive found on the same network, with CD and DVD Sharing turned on.